Device for determining initial position of cards for use in a data processing equipment

ABSTRACT

A device for determining the initial position of a card for use in a data processing equipment, said device having a positioning member which is retractably extended beyond the outer peripheral surface of a feed roller. When upon rotation of said feed roller said positioning member reaches a predetermined position and when the card exists at said position, the leading end of said positioning member makes contacts with said card and is then retracted inwardly of said feed roller. Even when the length of a card is longer than the circumference of the feed roller, the transportation of cards is not adversely affected at all.

United States Patent Suzuki et al.

[54] DEVICE FOR DETERMINING INITIAL POSITION OF CARDS FOR USE IN A DATA PROCESSING EQUIPMENT [72] inventors: Takami Suzuki, Fujisawa-shi; Uozumi, Zushi-shi, both of Japan [73] Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Ricoh, Tokyo, Japan [22] Filed: Jan. 27, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 6,130

Osamu ..G06k 7/14, B65h 9/06, H04q 1/02 Field ofSearch ..271/37,53; 340/149 A; 235/61.11 A, 61.11 B, 61.11 C, 61.11 E; 250/219 D [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,754,118 7/1956 Kaddeland ..271/53 [451 Jan. 18,1972

Primary ExaminerMaynard R. Wilbur Assistant Examiner-Robert M. Kilgore Attorney-Burgess, Ryan & Hicks [57] ABSTRACT A device for determining the initial position of a card for use in a data processing equipment, said device having a positioning member which is retractably extended beyond the outer peripheral surface of a feed roller. When upon rotation of said feed roller said positioning member reaches a predetermined position and when the card exists at said position, the leading end of said positioning member makes contacts with said card and is then retracted inwardly of said feed roller. Even when the length of a card is longer than the circumference of the feed roller, the transportation of cards is not adversely affected at all.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures DEVICE FOR DETERMINING INITIAL POSITION OF CARDS FOR USE IN A DATA PROCESSING EQUIPMENT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to generally a data processing equipment and more particularly a device for determining the initial position of cards used in card punchers, card readers and other data processing equipment employing cards.

In the data processing equipment, the cards are often advanced to the initial position first in order to ensure correctly timed advancement of the cards and the coaction of this advancement with the operations of other devices. Inthe conventional device, the determination of the initial position of the card is made by a positioning member which is moved into and away from the passage of the card. To drive this positioning member, a driving mechanism is required, so that the equipment becomes complicated and its function tends to become inefficient. In order to eliminate these defects, it is proposed to fix securely a member for determining the initial position of the card to the card feed roller, but in this case the feed roller can make only one rotation, and the diameter of the feed roller must be taken into special consideration when the equipment is designed.

In view of the above, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a device for determining the initial position of the cards used in the data processing equipment, which device can eliminate the defects encountered in the conventional device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention a member for determining the initial position of the cards (to be referred to as positioning member hereinafter) which is attached to a card feed roller is so arranged that the positioning member may be retractably extended beyond the outer peripheral surface of the feed roller by means of a spring, whereby the driving mechanism for driving the conventional positioning member can be eliminated.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, used is a positioning member which is rotatably fixed to the side face of a card feed roller and whose leading end is retractably extended beyond the outer peripheral surface of the feed roller by means of a spring. One stopper is in contact with the other end of the positioning member so as to adjust the position of the leading end. By rotation of the stopper, the position of the leading end of the positioning member may be fine adjusted. As the leading edge of the card contacts with the positioning member when the feed roller rotates so as to advance the card, the data upon the card can be read out. When the length of the card is longer than the circumference of the feed roller, the positioning member is retracted inwardly of the feed roller when the latter makes just one rotation, so that the card may be advanced smoothly'without any interruption. Thus, it will be seen that the diameter of a feed roller may be arbitrarily selected independently of the lengths of cards. According to another embodiment of the present invention, a card positioning member is fitted into a hole formed through the outer peripheral surface of a feed roller and is retractably and elastically extended beyond the outer peripheral surface of the feed roller normally by means of a spring which is also fitted into the hole.

The device of the type described in accordance with the present invention is simple in construction; requires no driving mechanism and is capable of advancing cards having various lengths. Therefore, the construction of the data processing equipment can be made simple and the data processing equipment can be fabricated at less cost and increased efficiency in processing the cards for data processing.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of illustrative embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OFTHE DRAWING DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1 illustrating a card reader incorporating the present invention, a card 1 is fed by a suitable means not shown) into the reader from a hopper (not shown) disposed on the right side in FIG. 1, and is entered into the nip between a pair of feed rollers 3 along a guide plate 2 and then fed into the reading section 4 of the reader with the surface of the card 1 being faced downwardly. The card I is advanced by a feed roller 5 and a pinch roller 6 toward a pair of feed rollers 7 and then toward a stacker (not shown) disposed on the left side.

Below the feed roller 5 are disposed a light source 9 having a reflecting mirror 8 having a curved surface and a photoelectric transducer element 11 which intercepts the light reflected from the card 1 through a lens 10. Therefore, punched holes or marks upon the card 1 are read out by the element 11.

The feed roller 5 is adapted to be driven in the direction indicated by the arrow a only when the card 1 is advanced. The

pinch roller 6 presses the card 1 against the feed roller 5 only when the card I is advanced. When the card 1 is not advanced, the pinch roller 6 is slightly spaced apart from the feed roller 5.

A positioning member 12 is pivotablyfixed to the side face of the feed roller 5 by means of a pivot 13 and has its one end fixed to one end of a spring 14 so that the positioning member 12 is normally biased so as to rotate in the clockwise direction. The other end of the spring 14 is fixed to the side face of the feed roller 15 by means of a pin 14a. The leading end of the positioning member 12 extends beyond the peripheral side edge of the side face of the feed roller 5 and the positioning member 12 is adapted to be held in optimum position by means of a stopper 15 as shown in FIG. 1. The stopper 15 is an eccentric cam and is loosely mounted to the side face of the feed roller 5 by a pin 15a. Thus. by rotating the stopper IS, the leading end of the positioning member 12 may be suitably fine adjusted. If required, a fixed stopper may be used instead of the stopper 15.

As shown in FIG. 3, a driving gear 16 is carried by shaft 5a of the feed roller 5 and is in frictional engagement with a driving device (not shown) so that the gear 16 is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow 0. A'pawl 19 which is supported upon a supporting member 17 and whose one end is fixed to one end of a spring 18, has the other end engaged with the teeth of the gear 16, so that the rotation of the gear 16 is prevented. The pawl 19 is attracted upwardly by an electromagnet 20 when the latter is energized so that the pawl 19 is disengaged from the teeth of the driving gear 5, thereby permitting the rotation of the gear 16. Thus, the feed roller 5 is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow a, so that the card is intermittently or continuously advanced.

A timing disk 21 (See FIG. 3) is also carried by the shaft 5a in opposed relation with a position detecting element 22 which is securely fixed to a stationary member and is connected to a suitable control circuit (not shown). Thus, the feed roller 5 is controlled by the element 22, so that when the positioning member 12 is held in suitable position the feed roller 5 is stopped.

Next the mode of operation will be described hereinafter. When the card 1 is advanced from the hopper (not shown) by the instruction signal, the card 1 is fed into the reading section 4 by the pair of feed rollers 3 and then the leading edge of the card 11 strikes the positioning member 12, so that the card 1 is placed in position. At the same time, the electromagnet 20 is energized while the pinch roller 6 is pressed against the feed roller and then the feed roller 5 rotates in the direction indicated by the arrow a. When the length of the card 1 is longer than the peripheral length of the feed roller 5, the latter will make more than one rotation, but since the leading end of the positioning member 12 is retracted radially and inwardly against the spring 14 as the feed roller 5 rotates, the card transportation is not interrupted at all. Thus, the card 1 is smoothly advanced in the direction indicated by the arrow 12 for readout. Even when the feed roller makes more than one rotation as described above, the position detecting element 22 controls the feed roller 5, so that the positioning member 12 may be returned to its initial optimum position and after the card is advanced beyond the feed roller 5, the latter is stopped.

Next referring to FIG. 4, the second embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinafter. In the second embodiment the positioning member is a member 47 which is fitted into a hole formed in the feed roller 45 and is normally biased by means of a compression spring 46 fitted at the bottom of the hole so as to radially outwardly extend beyond the outer peripheral surface of the feed roller 45. The member 47 may be prevented from being pulled away from the hole by means of an inwardly directed projection 48 disposed at the opening of the hole.

A plurality of positioning members may be provided in angularly spaced apart relation with each other depending upon the lengths of cards used.

We claim:

ll. A device for determining the initial position of cards for use in data processing equipment comprising a feed roller shaft;

a feed roller mounted on said shaft and having a side surface extending to a peripheral portion thereof;

a pinch roller positioned to contact said feed roller to form a nip therebetween for individual cards to pass therethrough;

means for advancing said cards through said nip;

means for reading out the data on said cards passing through said nip;

elongated positioning means having end portions and pivot means mounted on said roller side surface;

a stop member mounted on said roller side surface adjacent said elongated positioning member;

spring means having one end mounted on said roller side surface and the other end attached adjacent one end portion of said elongated positioning means to exert biasing force thereon;

said elongated positioning means positionable in a first position wherein said spring means biases said one end por tion into abutting relationship with said stop member whereby the other end portion of said elongated positioning member projects beyond said peripheral portion of said feed roller, said projecting end portion being contacted by said individual cards in their initial position; and

said elongated positioning member being positionable in a second position during rotation of said feed roller while a card is in said nip, said elongated positioning member in said second position having said one end portion spaced from said stop member as said other end portion is retracted within the confines of said peripheral portion.

2. A device according to claim I in which said stop member is an eccentric cam that is adjustable to determine the first position of said elongated positioning member.

3. A device according to claim 1 in which an electromagnet is provided that is energized when a card reaches the initial position to effect rotation of said feed roller in contact with said pinch roller. 

1. A device for determining the initial position of cards for use in data processing equipment comprising a feed roller shaft; a feed roller mounted on said shaft and having a side surface extending to a peripheral portion thereof; a pinch roller positioned to contact said feed roller to form a nip therebetween for individual cards to pass therethrough; means for advancing said cards through said nip; means for reading out the data on said cards passing through said nip; elongated positioning means having end portions and pivot means mounted on said roller side surface; a stop member mounted on said roller side surface adjacent said elongated positioning member; spring means having one end mounted on said roller side surface and the other end attached adjacent one end portion of said elongated positioning means to exert biasing forCe thereon; said elongated positioning means positionable in a first position wherein said spring means biases said one end portion into abutting relationship with said stop member whereby the other end portion of said elongated positioning member projects beyond said peripheral portion of said feed roller, said projecting end portion being contacted by said individual cards in their initial position; and said elongated positioning member being positionable in a second position during rotation of said feed roller while a card is in said nip, said elongated positioning member in said second position having said one end portion spaced from said stop member as said other end portion is retracted within the confines of said peripheral portion.
 2. A device according to claim 1 in which said stop member is an eccentric cam that is adjustable to determine the first position of said elongated positioning member.
 3. A device according to claim 1 in which an electromagnet is provided that is energized when a card reaches the initial position to effect rotation of said feed roller in contact with said pinch roller. 